Six months already! Here’s October’s monthly blog to keep you current on what’s going on at the Hazelton Haus. New teeth, lots of Halloween costumes to try to “spark joy” a surprising amount of houseplants and an unsurprising amount of decorative gourds.
Tried to grab some “school portraits” for this cool kid. Alas, he would not stay put on the sidewalk and got in the grass.
She’s getting so good at rolling that we’ll put her down and come back to realize she’s in a very different location than she started.
In image one, my son is telling me he’s pretending he’s in Arizona with his Great Grandma and the spiky cucumbers are saguaro cactuses (we all love succulents and cacti here…it was hard to leave most of our succulents in California during the move).
In image two…The Pickle Saga begins. So the neighbors extremely nicely gave us cucumbers from their garden because my son was excited about pickling them. The problem is During This Time of Covid in the Hazelton Haus, ain’t nobody got time for that. I very loudly and dramatically told my son with husband pointedly in earshot that “The Pickle Fairy comes out at night and swaps cucumbers for pickles,” the idea being we’d toss the cukes in the compost and replace them with a storebought jar of pickles. My husband did not get the memo. After the kids were down for the night I said, “So, the Pickle Fairy?” and he said, “Yeah, time for me to make pickles?” Noooooooo. Totally went over his head. 🙁 Later in the month, the Pickle Fairy was also responsible for eating all of the chocolate chips and not sharing with my son. My husband informed him that Pickle Fairies (me) are bad at sharing. A few weeks later my son followed up with, “Can we go to Thatcher Woods to see fairies? I want to ask them why they won’t share their chocolate chips.” :[
Sheer delight at his Master Sword and Hylian Shield for his Link from the Legend of Zelda costume.
Our daughter “roars” when she’s sleepy, so we call her “baby tiger.” So of course we had to get a costume…
How I feel the day after Halloween.
Some beautiful flowers from my sweet friend at Pickle Hill Parties. The teapot is from my mom.
Costume number two for little guy – appropriate for in-person school.
We got a new rug for the kitchen! My daughter approves.
Went out on the porch to see my son had made a pumpkin family on the swing.
Frost and snow (first snow Oct 26) threatened every other week in October. I couldn’t handle the utter lack of produce from our planted-super-late garden, so I brought in basil, chard, kale, mint, and a cherry tomato that will almost certainly die. Our papaya tree is still happy and will be ready to transplant soon!
Playdate at the park, and new-to-me 35mm and 85mm lenses from Winterlyn Photography.
First bite! We gave her a bamba peanut butter puff and I loved the way she had to hold her hands to eat. She loves the peanut butter puffs but thinks we’ve poisoned her when we tried applesauce, banana, pear, and acorn squash.
Taste test between Adagio Ceylon tea and Whittard Ceylon tea. Adagio’s is maltier, Whittard’s is more complex. I prefer Whittard’s.
My Meyer lemon seeds are sprouting! And here’s a decorative gourd my son painted that I get to proudly display in my home.
Halloween! My son and daughter are Link and Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda (we’ll just ignore the fact it’s a Sleeping Beauty dress; they don’t make baby Zelda costumes), and my husband and I went as Princess Anna and Kristoff from Frozen II. My daughter loved chewing on her dress.
An unconventional Halloween with all the social distancing, masks, candy chutes, and 1:30-5 PM trick or treating times, but it was still really fun!
Kristen Hazelton is an Oak Park, IL (Chicago, IL metro area) and Livermore, CA (San Francisco East Bay Area) senior, family, and engagement photographer. She occasionally photographs in San Diego, CA, Tucson, AZ, and Seattle, WA. You can inquire about your own photoshoot here!
